Tag Archive | "Industry Roundup"

Marky and the Bear: Mark Wahlberg will play the human lead in Seth Macfarlane’s directorial debut, a $65 million R-rated buddy comedy titled Ted about a man and his best friend, a living teddy bear voiced by Macfarlane. Wahlberg will spend the movie getting frustrated with the bear, “a carousing, irresponsible slacker,” for “getting in the way of his buddy committing to adulthood and the girl he loves.” Why does it sound like You, Me, and Dupree with a splash of CGI? [Deadline]

Easy As Pi: After auditioning 3,000 teenagers in a global talent search, director Ang Lee has found someone to play the lead in his upcoming film rendition of Yann Martel’s novel Life of Pi. His name is Suraj Sharma, and he’s never acted before. He will play “16-year old Pi Patel, a youth who gets stranded for 227 days through shark-infested waters aboard a 26-foot lifeboat with a wounded zebra, a spotted hyena, a seasick orangutan, and a 450-pound Bengal tiger.” Shooting starts in January. [Deadline]

No Wabbits: Brothers Kevin Hageman and Dan Hageman (Hotel Transylvania) have sold a pitch to Warner Bros. that revolves “around the fictional ACME warehouse” (i.e., Wile E. Coyote). It does not leave room for the studio to develop a new franchise around the Looney Toons brand, as the hallmark characters will not be making an appearance in the movie. Instead, the film will be a live action/CGI hybrid made in “a tone that recalls the Amblin pics of the 1980s or a Men in Black

? Not a Duo: Antonio Banderas will direct “a psychological thriller with sci-fi touches turning on a Spanish colonel suffering post-conflict trauma” for his Green Moon production company. The movie will be called Solo, and Erik Jendresen wrote its screenplay. It will start shooting in his native Spain next year, in English. “Unfortunately, to reach large international markets, you have to shoot in English,” Banderas said at a festival this past weekend. [Variety]

Family Gal: Alex Borstein, who both writes for Family Guy and does the voice of Lois, signed a two-series deal with 20th Century Fox. She will write, develop, and produce a live-action series and an animated series. Executives believe that one of these projects will be an “off-center, comedian-centered comedy series, such as Roseanne and Seinfeld, that broadcasters used to excel at creating.” [HR]

Return From Zion: ABC just became the fourth network to add a show with Israeli roots to its roster, signing the project Tall and Greenbaum after seeing the pilot of the Israeli version of the new show. It’s about two guys and a production company that films small gatherings like Bar Mitzvahs. (One of the main characters cheats on his wife.) They “do their best to juggle their business and complicated personal lives, sometimes with disastrous results.” [Deadline]

Negotiations: In 2008, Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt was rescued by soldiers, ending a six-year hostage situation in the South American jungle. Soon after, she went through a bitter divorce from her husband Juan Carlos Lecompte, who had been waiting for her. They both wrote books on their separate ordeals, and now they both successfully sold movie rights to their story. Betty Kaplan acquired the rights to Lecompte’s books about the couple’s time apart (although not the one about the divorce), and her treatment will focus on Lecompte’s “love and the search for Betancourt throughout her captivity.” Kathleen Kennedy acquired the rights to Bentancourt’s book, which is about her experience of her time in captivity. [HR]